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Zulqarnain Haider's story began at the Under-15 World Cup here in England in the summer of 2000, in which he participated only six months after his mother's death from cancer
Nagraj Gollapudi at Edgbaston
August 6, 2010
"I was 100 percent certain that I would one day play for Pakistan," Zulqarnain Haider told Cricinfo on the eve of his Test debut at Edgbaston. As it turned out, his first taste of the big time was brutally anticlimactic. He came to the crease with his team in disarray at 36 for 5, and edged his first ball to fall for a duck to Stuart Broad.
Nevertheless, it's been a long and eventful journey for the 24-year-old wicketkeeper from Lahore, and given the distance he's already travelled, the disappointment of the moment will surely pass. His story began at the Under-15 World Cup here in England in the summer of 2000, in which he participated only six months after his mother's death from cancer.
It was a big step to take for a 13-year-old boy, never mind one coming to terms with such a loss, but his mother's dying wish had been that one of her four sons should travel abroad. Zulqarnain, the second eldest, was the only one with the talent to excel as a cricketer, and it was the promise that he made to her that drove him towards the top. Four years later, at the Under-19 World Cup in Dhaka, he scored a vital 23 not out from 18 balls, and claimed three catches, as Pakistan took the title in the final against West Indies.
Now, in a grimly tragic turn of events, he found himself preparing for the biggest moment of his life with another family trauma hanging over his head. Three days ago, his father Syed Raza Haider, was hospitalised. He was suffering from Hepatatis C and there was an ulcer in his digestive system which caused profuse bleeding, leading to a coma. On Thursday morning, he briefly regained consciousness, but Zulqarnain doesn't yet know if he's aware of the step his son has just taken.
For a man battling with such competing emotions, Zulqarnain's challenge has been to keep a clear head. But he himself feels that cricket has been a good distraction, a comfort blanket through which to relieve his stresses. "I would like to make a hundred and take ten catches," he said, when asked about his ambitions for his maiden Test. "And to end up as the Man of the Match." Despite the start he's made, there's still time to live up to those aims.
On the eve of the match he was as excited as any Test debutant would be. The world wanted a piece of him and he wanted the attention. There was nothing wrong with that. But there were plenty nerves on display as well, especially as he hadn't been expecting the call-up so soon, regardless of the criticism that Kamran Akmal attracted during the Trent Bridge Test. "I had the hopes that I would play at least one Test but at the end of the series, not the second Test," he said.
If there is something that Zulqarnain still has in common with the 13-year-old boy of a decade ago, it is intent. Add to that guts. Immediately after the two-day warm-up match against Leicestershire last month, he wandered into the Lord's nets where some of the Pakistan fast bowlers were preparing for the first Test against Australia. Aaqib Javed, the assistant coach, was looking on as Mohammad Amir, Umar Gul and Mohammad Tanvir gave Imran Farhat a serious working-over.
Zulqarnain, sitting on the sidelines, was getting restless to bat. He was not even wearing the team's official training gear. Dressed in black sneakers and some non-team whites, he looked more like a net bowler than Pakistan's reserve wicketkeeper. Eventually when Aaqib gave him permission, Zulqarnain hurriedly padded up, donned a helmet and took guard on a wicket with ample bounce and movement.
The bowlers laughed and warned him for not wearing an arm guard. "I don't need one," he replied with a boyish smile. For the next 20 minutes he played without getting hit once and even impressed his watching captain, Salman Butt, with a solid technique of keeping the bat close to the pads while still looking to play his shots.
But Zulqarnain feels it was his "outstanding" work during the two-day warm-up game against Leicestershire that forced the tour selectors to keep their eye on him. His acrobatic dives to save byes and leg-byes on both sides of the wicket were a happy sight for the bowlers who had grown used to watching Kamran spill extras on many an occasion. At 180 cm, he is tall for a wicketkeeper, and he agrees it is an advantage. "You can say that," he said. "My reach is a strong point."
Despite Kamran's shoddy glovework at Trent Bridge, long-term followers of Pakistan cricket believed the team management wouldn't dare to drop him. But Waqar Younis and Butt are steadily changing the tide in their own way. The pair believe it is time to be bold, and they have remained transparent in their ways and encouraged every member of the squad to put in the effort. After a one-off Twenty20 against South Africa in 2007, Zulqarnain's perseverance has finally paid off.
"Even after what happened [in the first Test] I never expected I would still play here at Edgbaston because he [Kamran] is a senior and has been playing for many years," he said. "So to play a youngster in the second Test would not be possible. However now that they have shown the confidence in me now I would to repay the faith. Now that I've got another chance I would like to prove and establish myself."
It is not just the fact of his Test debut that might have made him nervous, but also the swinging and seaming conditions which have sent a chill up the spine of many experienced keepers. Yet Zulqarnain strongly believes that, with the gloves at least, he can make use of the basics he first learned on the streets of Lahore, when he used to cope with the wild flight of a tape ball. His skills including a fast reflex coupled with the daring to dive without any fear on the hard concrete of the mohallah on Link Road in Model Town, and that commitment prompted a scout to take the youngster's potential seriously.
"One of my acquaintances saw me taking some good catches and told me I had the guts and I could play at a higher level," he said, turning back the clock. Immediately he started playing with the bigger boys and became more popular as a result. Those days are bound to come handy now in England because the tape ball usually swings swiftly and randomly, and reflexes are the key along with his reach.
Those were also days of wearing torn shoes and torn gloves. Days when the brand did not matter, the passion just pumped up the adrenalin. It was also a torrid time at the Haider family with Zulqarnain's mother's cancer spreading rapidly. His father Syed was the lone breadwinner, working at a local factory, but the treatment was expensive and at times the entire family could not save enough to eat two meals a day. "In 1997-98 it was very expensive," he said. "The injections cost around Rs. 60,000 and she needed about two to three per month. We needed to save every penny."
Sadly, Zulqarnain's elder sister, Any, suffered from typhoid when she was young and in the absence of their mother, somebody needed to take care of her. So Zulqarnain's dad made sure that, as soon as he reached adulthood, he was married. "He did not want me to get spoilt," Zulqarnain said with a hearty laugh. And the first person he called, a minute after his name was announced during the team meeting on Thursday, evening was his wife Iqra.
Meanwhile, he hasn't forgotten the promise he made to himself after his mother's death. "I promised myself that the day that when I make my Test debut I would donate half of my match fee to the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, where she was treated." Fittingly, that was the hospital founded by Imran Khan in memory of his own mother.
Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at Cricinfo
England v Pakistan: Zulqarnain's long road to recognition | Cricket Features | England v Pakistan 2010 | Cricinfo.com
-----------
great article, very nice read...
Nagraj Gollapudi at Edgbaston
August 6, 2010
"I was 100 percent certain that I would one day play for Pakistan," Zulqarnain Haider told Cricinfo on the eve of his Test debut at Edgbaston. As it turned out, his first taste of the big time was brutally anticlimactic. He came to the crease with his team in disarray at 36 for 5, and edged his first ball to fall for a duck to Stuart Broad.
Nevertheless, it's been a long and eventful journey for the 24-year-old wicketkeeper from Lahore, and given the distance he's already travelled, the disappointment of the moment will surely pass. His story began at the Under-15 World Cup here in England in the summer of 2000, in which he participated only six months after his mother's death from cancer.
It was a big step to take for a 13-year-old boy, never mind one coming to terms with such a loss, but his mother's dying wish had been that one of her four sons should travel abroad. Zulqarnain, the second eldest, was the only one with the talent to excel as a cricketer, and it was the promise that he made to her that drove him towards the top. Four years later, at the Under-19 World Cup in Dhaka, he scored a vital 23 not out from 18 balls, and claimed three catches, as Pakistan took the title in the final against West Indies.
Now, in a grimly tragic turn of events, he found himself preparing for the biggest moment of his life with another family trauma hanging over his head. Three days ago, his father Syed Raza Haider, was hospitalised. He was suffering from Hepatatis C and there was an ulcer in his digestive system which caused profuse bleeding, leading to a coma. On Thursday morning, he briefly regained consciousness, but Zulqarnain doesn't yet know if he's aware of the step his son has just taken.
For a man battling with such competing emotions, Zulqarnain's challenge has been to keep a clear head. But he himself feels that cricket has been a good distraction, a comfort blanket through which to relieve his stresses. "I would like to make a hundred and take ten catches," he said, when asked about his ambitions for his maiden Test. "And to end up as the Man of the Match." Despite the start he's made, there's still time to live up to those aims.
On the eve of the match he was as excited as any Test debutant would be. The world wanted a piece of him and he wanted the attention. There was nothing wrong with that. But there were plenty nerves on display as well, especially as he hadn't been expecting the call-up so soon, regardless of the criticism that Kamran Akmal attracted during the Trent Bridge Test. "I had the hopes that I would play at least one Test but at the end of the series, not the second Test," he said.
If there is something that Zulqarnain still has in common with the 13-year-old boy of a decade ago, it is intent. Add to that guts. Immediately after the two-day warm-up match against Leicestershire last month, he wandered into the Lord's nets where some of the Pakistan fast bowlers were preparing for the first Test against Australia. Aaqib Javed, the assistant coach, was looking on as Mohammad Amir, Umar Gul and Mohammad Tanvir gave Imran Farhat a serious working-over.
Zulqarnain, sitting on the sidelines, was getting restless to bat. He was not even wearing the team's official training gear. Dressed in black sneakers and some non-team whites, he looked more like a net bowler than Pakistan's reserve wicketkeeper. Eventually when Aaqib gave him permission, Zulqarnain hurriedly padded up, donned a helmet and took guard on a wicket with ample bounce and movement.
The bowlers laughed and warned him for not wearing an arm guard. "I don't need one," he replied with a boyish smile. For the next 20 minutes he played without getting hit once and even impressed his watching captain, Salman Butt, with a solid technique of keeping the bat close to the pads while still looking to play his shots.
But Zulqarnain feels it was his "outstanding" work during the two-day warm-up game against Leicestershire that forced the tour selectors to keep their eye on him. His acrobatic dives to save byes and leg-byes on both sides of the wicket were a happy sight for the bowlers who had grown used to watching Kamran spill extras on many an occasion. At 180 cm, he is tall for a wicketkeeper, and he agrees it is an advantage. "You can say that," he said. "My reach is a strong point."
Despite Kamran's shoddy glovework at Trent Bridge, long-term followers of Pakistan cricket believed the team management wouldn't dare to drop him. But Waqar Younis and Butt are steadily changing the tide in their own way. The pair believe it is time to be bold, and they have remained transparent in their ways and encouraged every member of the squad to put in the effort. After a one-off Twenty20 against South Africa in 2007, Zulqarnain's perseverance has finally paid off.
"Even after what happened [in the first Test] I never expected I would still play here at Edgbaston because he [Kamran] is a senior and has been playing for many years," he said. "So to play a youngster in the second Test would not be possible. However now that they have shown the confidence in me now I would to repay the faith. Now that I've got another chance I would like to prove and establish myself."
It is not just the fact of his Test debut that might have made him nervous, but also the swinging and seaming conditions which have sent a chill up the spine of many experienced keepers. Yet Zulqarnain strongly believes that, with the gloves at least, he can make use of the basics he first learned on the streets of Lahore, when he used to cope with the wild flight of a tape ball. His skills including a fast reflex coupled with the daring to dive without any fear on the hard concrete of the mohallah on Link Road in Model Town, and that commitment prompted a scout to take the youngster's potential seriously.
"One of my acquaintances saw me taking some good catches and told me I had the guts and I could play at a higher level," he said, turning back the clock. Immediately he started playing with the bigger boys and became more popular as a result. Those days are bound to come handy now in England because the tape ball usually swings swiftly and randomly, and reflexes are the key along with his reach.
Those were also days of wearing torn shoes and torn gloves. Days when the brand did not matter, the passion just pumped up the adrenalin. It was also a torrid time at the Haider family with Zulqarnain's mother's cancer spreading rapidly. His father Syed was the lone breadwinner, working at a local factory, but the treatment was expensive and at times the entire family could not save enough to eat two meals a day. "In 1997-98 it was very expensive," he said. "The injections cost around Rs. 60,000 and she needed about two to three per month. We needed to save every penny."
Sadly, Zulqarnain's elder sister, Any, suffered from typhoid when she was young and in the absence of their mother, somebody needed to take care of her. So Zulqarnain's dad made sure that, as soon as he reached adulthood, he was married. "He did not want me to get spoilt," Zulqarnain said with a hearty laugh. And the first person he called, a minute after his name was announced during the team meeting on Thursday, evening was his wife Iqra.
Meanwhile, he hasn't forgotten the promise he made to himself after his mother's death. "I promised myself that the day that when I make my Test debut I would donate half of my match fee to the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital, where she was treated." Fittingly, that was the hospital founded by Imran Khan in memory of his own mother.
Nagraj Gollapudi is an assistant editor at Cricinfo
England v Pakistan: Zulqarnain's long road to recognition | Cricket Features | England v Pakistan 2010 | Cricinfo.com
-----------
great article, very nice read...
